Tamil Nadu: Dejected sugarcane farmers switch to alternate crops

TIRUCHY: Frustrated by several issues, including unusual delay in the payment of pending dues by private sugar mills, the sugarcane farmers of Perambalur have switched over to alternate crop cultivation, which has reduced around 40 per cent acreage of usual cultivation in the district.

Apart from shallot cultivation, Perambalur farmers cultivate sugarcane on a larger area, while paddy, groundnut, millets and cashew are cultivated in a limited area. As the district is a rain-fed region, the farmers used to concentrate on the long-term crops.

While the district is also one of the major producers of sugarcane, the farmers from the region have been complaining of quitting sugarcane cultivation for a long time as they were not being paid promptly amidst poor pricing, making them wait for more than three months for cutting orders.

Usually, the harvested sugarcane bundles are sent to the Public sector sugarmill at Edaiyur in Perambalur, but the delay in cutting order prompted the farmers to send them to the private sugar mills functioning at Udumpiam near Veppanthattai for the past few years. However, the private firm had failed to disburse the dues of Rs 7.13 crore for 2024-25 to the farmers.

“We have taken the issue to the Perambalur district administration, but no step has been initiated from the district administration. Since the farmers had borrowed money from the lenders for taking up the cultivation, they are frustrated, and so many of them have switched over to the cultivation of other crops like paddy, maize and groundnut,” V Neelakandan, Sugarcane farmer and District Secretary, Tamil Nadu Farmers Association said.

Neelakandan said that the farmers have to spend at least Rs 80,000 per hectare, and they could get 40 tonnes of yield, and the cutting charges have been increased to Rs 1,300 per day and so the farmers are in a hesitation to go further with the sugarcane cultivation, which takes 15 months for harvest.

Neelakandan further said that, due to these factors, sugarcane acreage has been shrinking year by year.

For instance, in 2022-23, the cultivation was undertaken in an area of 3,728 ha while in 2023-24, it was reduced to 3,471 ha and in 2024-25 to was further reduced to 2,630 ha.

“The farmers from Malayalapatti, Arumbavur, Kottarakunnu, Poolambadi in Veppanthattai had switched over to shallots, maize, cotton, turmeric, tapioca and areca nuts. These were the places which cultivated sugarcane more than any other crops,” Neelakandan said.

He urged the government to provide at least Rs4,000 per tonne and control the cutting charges. The sugar mills should bear the cost of cutting charges. The government should also order the mills to disburse the amount within 15 days of cutting, which would encourage the sugarcane farmers to continue with cultivation.